2020 Best & Brightest: Anandita Mehta, College of New Jersey

Anandita Mehta

The College of New Jersey

“I’m basically crow pose in human form, compact and delicately balanced!”

Fun fact about yourself: I enjoy making my own DIY face masks!

Hometown: Edison, NJ

High School: J. P. Stevens High School

Major: Economics, B.S.

Minor: English; Business & Society

Favorite Business Course: Business Law

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work, and Leadership Roles During College:

  • Staff Writer for the student newspaper, The Signal
  • Campus Contributor for Her Campus
  • Research Assistant
  • Student Coordinator for Library Media Department
  • Resident Assistant

Where have you interned during your college career? During my time in college, I interned at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Correspondence in New York, New York, handling digital and paper correspondence directed to the Mayor.  Additionally, last summer, I interned at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in their Internal Audit Group, where I was able to interact with many groups at the bank while participating in a variety of audits.

Where will you be working after graduation? After graduation, I will be joining the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the Supervision Group’s rotational program for recent graduates.

Who is your favorite professor? My favorite professor at TCNJ has been Dr. Michele Naples. I started out at college as an English major and took Dr. Naples’ class in Introductory Macroeconomics my freshman year. I enjoyed the class and learned so much that I decided to change my major to economics because of this experience. Since that macroeconomics class, I have taken many classes with Dr. Naples and she has been a major support system for me, both as my academic advisor and a professor that encourages me to always do my best.

What did you enjoy most about your business school? At TCNJ, I had the unique position of being able to study Economics from the business perspective, rather than as a social science, which allowed me to see the interaction of business with the world around it. This gave me the opportunity to get both the social sciences view and the business view, essentially to get the best of both worlds.

What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? In a field like business, the most valuable skill you can have is emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal skills. Ever since high school, and especially in my internship this past summer, people have been emphasizing the importance of working with other people. I believe that, in business, success depends more on understanding your clients and coworkers and adapting to changing circumstances than it depends on knowing specific processes or facts.

Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? Receiving an offer to work at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was a dream come true and something I am incredibly proud of. When I started studying economics and exploring career paths in the field, I said to myself that I wanted to work at the Federal Reserve. At that time, I thought it was a lofty goal that I would not be able to pursue because it was out of reach. However, once I interned there, I enjoyed it so much, and realized that working there was a very real possibility. Since this was something I once thought was out of reach, accepting the offer to come back to the Bank full-time meant I had accomplished a dream.

Which classmate do you most admire? Kim Tang is someone who has inspired me for the way she never stops going. Like me, Kim works three jobs while being a part-time student, but even with all of that, she is constantly working on developing herself, both personally and professionally. She doesn’t let setbacks phase her, and uses them as motivation to do better and be more.

What was the biggest surprise about business school? When I first started studying business, I thought it was all about finding the strategy with the lowest cost for the highest return, and that doing so would be clear and obvious. However, I soon learned that this was not the case. Often, measuring the costs and benefits of a strategy is impossible because they can’t be quantified in terms of a dollar value, or because they are indirect and unseen. Majoring in business showed me that decision-making in this field isn’t always based on money.

Who would you most want to thank for your success? I’m very grateful for my dad, who has worked hard so that I would have the opportunity to have the experiences that I have so far, while providing calm support whenever I needed it.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? One thing that’s been on my professional bucket list for a while is pursuing a Ph.D. so I can be called Dr. Mehta. Although I’ve never been inclined to achieve that through the medical school route, I still want to be a doctor.

The second item on my professional bucket list is working in a role where I am primarily interacting with people in a language other than English. Fluency in foreign languages opens up many new worlds and so I hope to become fluent in at least two additional languages. Working in a role that requires me to be multilingual would open up many more opportunities than simply using it in casual conversation.

What are your hobbies? Since I was a little kid, I’ve been dancing, which led me to find my current favorite activity of yoga when I came to college. Working as a Resident Assistant, I also developed a fondness for papercrafts. And of course, I’m a lifelong reader, with a soft spot for historical fiction.

What made Anandita such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2020?

“Anandita Mehta is one of the best students I’ve had. She’s an excellent writer, has a great analytical mind, and is a serious, committed student. Plus she’s curious.

Dr. Michele Naples
Professor of Economics

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE TOP 100 BEST & BRIGHTEST BUSINESS MAJORS OF 2020

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